Sunday, February 17, 2019

Synchronized Pintails

Northern pintail ducks, Anas acuta, breed in summer in Northern Eurasia, Alaska, and across Canada. They fly south to spend the winter along the east and west coasts of North America and across the southern half of the United States and into South America. Some pintails, like these two males, show up in winter at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in southern New Jersey. Click to enlarge.

Long-necked, long-tailed, brown-headed, beautiful pintail ducks.

They are dabbling ducks that feed by dipping their heads under the water, dabbling, rather than diving.

Sometimes they seem as coordinated in their movements as an Olympic synchronized swim team!

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About Me

I am a Collection Manager at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. I live in Brooklyn. Most mornings I walk a few blocks to the subway station. I get off the train at 59th street in Manhattan and walk a mile along Central Park West through one of the most urban settings in the world. I see a nonhuman mammal or two, a few dozen birds, and a variety of intriguing insects every day; this blog is a collection of stories about them.
UPDATE, JUNE 2018: I retired from the museum and moved away from New York City. I'm in a little town on the Delaware across from Philadelphia that is teeming with urban and suburban wildlife. Best of all, I'm close to the New Jersey Pine Barrens which is unique and lovely and full of future blogs.

Here is a link to my book's webpage.

Urban Wildlife Guide

Blog Photos

The photos in this blog can be enlarged by clicking on them. I took all of them. If you want to use one, please ask permission in the comments section below the blog and I'll respond and let you know how to attribute. Thanks for reading!